With under 90 days to go until the release of Iceborne, you can expect many hunters had their eyes dead set on Capcom at E3. It wasn’t too long ago that we got our first look at Iceborne, where we got to see the story, some of the new monsters, and the new location. By the end of the 2019 E3 presentation, we had a few good ideas of what was coming in the upcoming Massive expansion. While some of these things are par for the course when expanding on a game, there were six new tidbits that caught many hunter’s attention. Some are more important than others, but here are six things that should interest or even exciting hunters later this fall.
1. Changes to Team Difficulty
So before we get going, it helps to quickly point out something fairly interesting. Chances are that if you are someone who did play Monster Hunter World, you might have come to realize that the game has two difficulties during a hunt; and we’re not talking Low-Rank and High-Rank.
Up until now, a monster’s difficulty was dependent on a simple question: How many people are in your team? You can hunt a monster solo to have an easier time, or you can play with three other hunters and the monster gets stronger and takes longer to be taken down. The problem here though, was how there appeared to be little difference between a team of two and a team of four. If there was one other person helping you, the monster was getting a buff as though it was fighting four.
Capcom- Monster Hunter World Iceborne
Well that is about to change, as they are now introducing a nice “middle ground” where a monster will get a small buff if you’re hunting with two players, and a bigger buff if you have three or four players helping out.
That’s cool and all, but another fun thing about the team difficulty is how it now works both ways. Previously, if you were in a hunt with four players, but there was a disconnection where you were the only person hunting, the monster would still have the buff, leaving you at a disadvantage. Now if that were to happen, the monster will drop back down as though it was only one person hunting the entire time. Hopefully with this in place, it will ensure more fun hunts for teams of two and those who lose connection with their teammates.
2. Everything Runs On Steam
While we had already heard about us traveling to Seliana, E3 2019 did mark our first time actually walking around our new home away from home. Whereas in World everything was vast and on different floors, our new colder locale has all the necessities close by, so you won’t have to run far to get places. Your housekeeper is stationed outside so you can do the safaris much easier, and we will have The Grammeowster Chef, who cooks hot meals with love. There will be plenty of nice things to enjoy with Seliana, but it is a different matter to ensure everything is running properly.
Capcom- Monster Hunter World Iceborne
As you complete quests, you can help the Steamworks with the collected fuel you get. By playing the minigame in there, you will also be able to earn additional items ranging from small consumables, armor spheres, or even prints and vouchers. It’s hard to say how the minigame itself works, but it looks like every time you put in an input you use up some fuel to build up a gauge. If you get the gauge all the way to the top, you get a fun cut scene to acknowledge your success, and you can also get a whole bunch of items.
We will likely get more details, but for now it is another fun side activity to enjoy when not on the hunt.
3. Selfies!
It does seem like there is a trend going on in games where you can stop what you’re doing for a minute and take a quick snapshot of the world around you. Well it seems that Capcom has put themselves on that bandwagon with the brand new feature in Iceborne: “View Mode”.
Capcom- Monster Hunter World Iceborne
While in View Mode, you gain access to a camera that lets you move around freely and take pictures of the scenery. To go with this, you can also take pictures of your hunter and palico too, as they strike poses for the camera. It’s a fun little feature that can also be used during a hunt, but bear in mind the game does not pause while using it. This means if you’re going to try and take a selfie with a giant monster about to violently tackle you, you’re going to be in for a world of hurt.
4. Four Slot Gem Slots?! And Decorations in Mantles!?
Before Capcom went off to hunt a Tigrex during their presentation, we got a good look at the various weapons and armors in the demo build. For those of you who haven’t played a “Master Rank” or “G-Rank” before, you can expect armors and weapons to look so much better than ever and with it, even better skills than with the current High-Rank Armors.
Capcom- Monster Hunter World Iceborne
That’s all well and good, but some hawk-eye players did not hesitate to take notice of a few things during the equipment. It would seem there are two big additions coming up. The first was that the mantles players can wear will not have decoration slots for you to equip even more skills to your hunter. This means that if you have had builds where you were one decoration away from maxing it, the mantles would help you with reaching maximum. Another thing to bear in mind though, is that this only covers those that have a “+” at the end. This likely means during the course of Iceborne, we could be upgrading our mantles to be even more effective.
Now to go with these new Mantle upgrades, players did notice that for some armors and mantles, the gem slots did look even bigger than before. Upon closer inspection, we can see that it does in fact show these slots can hold what one can assume to be “Level 4 Gems”. This is exciting to consider for a variety of reasons. We may get even more new skills, or perhaps decorations might have multiple points attached to them. No matter the route that is taken here, the ways you can customize your hunter’s layout is about to become even deeper than ever.
5. Clutch Claws Aren’t Freebies
When first shown, so many people were ecstatic over two big changes to the Slinger. The first was that all hunters can use it while drawn, while the second was the brand new “Clutch Claw” which lets hunters grapple onto monsters to deliver powerful hits. We would later discover that the power behind these attacks was dependent on how heavy your weapon was, as heavy weapons can leave weak points for players to exploit while lighter weapons can give them access to slinger ammo.
Capcom- Monster Hunter World Iceborne
Now here’s the thing about the Clutch Claws you will need to keep in mind: They do not provide “Freebies.” You see, the Clutch Claw is almost like the Switch Axe’s ability to hop onto a monster and deliver a powerful blast to the monster. With this said though, it does not mean that the monster can’t just slap you off. We saw this happen too during the hunt, where they tried to latch on to the Tigrex, and the monster was having none of it.
This also leads into how the Claw attacks are a part of additional attacks hunters have in their move-sets. We can see how, after a charged hammer attack, the hunter can use the claw to latch onto a monster and go for an attack. Again, it is best to not be so gung-ho about using the claw for attacks, because if a monster is aggressive, it will be a free attack against you, so it’s best to use this when the monster is not likely to immediately fight back.
6. Catching a Ride with Raider Rides!
During the first look at Iceborne, many players were caught off guard at the idea that you can actually ride on top of monsters. This would make it the first time ever in the main series (not counting Monster Hunter Stories) something like this would be possible, and it was amazing. The only problem was that we did not really get to see much else outside of that, nor get a proper explanation. During the Tigrex hunt at E3, we did get to see a quick glimpse of the tutorial for the Raider Ride and how exactly this will work.
Capcom- Monster Hunter World Iceborne
The most important thing to note is that you do not have control of the monster while you’re riding on it, but you can choose a destination. After using the Raider Ride Call, you can hop on to the monster and it will start to run along the pathway you’ve chosen. If you open up the map, you can drop a pin and the monster will take you there. This also includes a large monster you’re hunting too, as the monster you are riding will take you right to it.
The other cool thing about this feature, is that you can still use items while riding on the monster. This means that if you want to sharpen your weapon, heal up, or do anything else item-wise, you can while the monster takes you to your destination. Just make sure to not ride the monster too much. It will need to rest, and will likely not be able to be called upon again during that quest or expedition. It will be fun to see how Raider Rides will change up the game and how fun it will be to ride a monster towards the next battle. You can also leap off said monster with your weapon drawn too.
So What Do You Think?
What do you think of these upcoming changes to Monster Hunter World Iceborne? Which change or update are you the most excited to see? Monster Hunter World Iceborne will be coming on September 6, 2019. You can pre-order the Iceborne Massive expansion right now digitally. Or, you can buy the full version of the game with the original when it comes out. Be sure to keep following us here at Culture of Gaming for more news from E3 and all your favorite titles!
